


Meteorite

by poetdameron



Category: Buzzfeed As/Is, Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe, Edge of Tomorrow AU, F/M, Getting Together, Implied/Reference Death, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Relationship(s), Past Sara/Ella, Past Shane/Ryan, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 23:35:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18788554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poetdameron/pseuds/poetdameron
Summary: Sara was 25 when she joined the fight, she was 27 when she gained the loop, and 28 when she met Shane.Shane was 32 when he gained the loop and met Sara 1,106 times in the same day. With her help, he could win the war.Edge Of Tomorrow AU.





	Meteorite

**Author's Note:**

  * For [berufromtumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/berufromtumblr/gifts).



> Happy belated birthday to one of my best friends, [BERU](https://madejsryan.tumblr.com/)! She was the one person who introduced me to Unsolved and I promised to write shara for her. I'm nervous. And Beru-- I love you 3000! You know I did this with all the love, and I really hope you like it.
> 
> This work was a lot of fun, Edge Of Tomorrow is one of mine and Shane's favorite movies, so having the chance to work on this AU really was great. And as always, I really hope you guys enjoy it. It was also heavily inspired by a lot of the fanon in the EoT community online. It's been a while since I last interacted over there, but man. That's one talented fandom.
> 
> This work was edited by my good friend [FIE](https://ebonybow.tumblr.com/)! Thanks a lot for your help, you are an incredible person, artist and even better friend. Love you so much, man!
> 
> Now, If you have a tumblr and you liked this fic, please support me by reblogging the [original post](https://yaboybergara.tumblr.com/post/184809882117/meteorite-shara-fic)!

**Meteorite**

Sara had been someone else before the war, and she had been 25 when the first meteorite hit the ground in some place she never paid much attention to in Europe.

Like many others her age, she offered to help.

As a nurse, she was supposed to care for the wounded, help them heal, but somewhere between day twenty-nine and day one hundred, plans changed and so did her life: a loop, caused by blood from the enemy, an eternal day she couldn’t escape, the secret of why the Mimics were winning and why humanity was succumbing.

Sara lived through loops that felt eternal, watching her friends die, pulling the trigger on herself, trying to destroy the being that was causing all this suffering, but at the end, she lost it.

 

* * *

 

There was a doctor, Marchbank, who explained it to her once — she contacted him during one of her loops, knowing she could trust him for he knew the Mimics better than anyone else, the creatures that had stolen his home, his family, and had left him with nothing but the war.

He said, serious and knowing, that the aliens that were invading their planet were to be seen as a single organism, all controlled by a sole Mother he called Omega, commanded on the ground by the bigger Mimics, she remembered, the blue ones he called Alpha like the one she had killed and who gave her the power.

The Omega was able to know the future somehow, and so she reset the day every time an Alpha died so their battle would be different, would be better, because they already knew what would happen and how to change it in their favor.

They won like that.

When she got infected with the Alpha blood, they were given a weapon. They could win the war with her.

 

* * *

 

They didn’t.

She lost it in an accident, unable to loop before passing out and being rescued, a blood transfusion taking it away. Something stupid she couldn’t understand, that Marchbank couldn’t understand when he heard about it.

But Sara became something else. A symbol of the war, when she had won a battle almost all by herself.

They called her the Angel of Verdun in propaganda, her real title was the Full Metal Bitch.

She carried it with pride that made everyone else look down as she walked.

 

* * *

 

“Yes, who said you could talk to me? Do I have something in my face, soldier?”

He appeared out of nowhere, though Sara had seen him before.

On TV, on the internet, on posters and the newspaper, selling this war to every country so they would send in resources and people would maintain some calm as the soldiers got massacred every day, thinking things were going better.

He gave her the name. Angel of Verdun. She was a creation of his, the poster girl that made many other young people join once they heard her story, but Sara never met him before until now.

“I’m like you!” He said, suddenly, after she had turned back to ignore him. “I’m like you before Verdun!”

Sara looked back, frowning, waiting to hear more. Was this man for real?

“You told me to find you when I wake up! Tomorrow’s assault it’s a trap, they are waiting for us. We are gonna lose! You are gonna die, I’m gonna die. Everyone is going to die!”

When Sara looked around, no one was there to hear him lose his shit. It would have made her laugh, to see this ridiculous man so scared, but his mouth was full of truth and she knew it. She knew what it was like to wake up after dying, and dying, and dying, and not being able to understand what was going on.

She must have found him and seen him on that beach.

“What was your name again?” She murmured, cleaning up the sweat from her forehead. Sara already knew his name, but she wanted to hear him.

“Madej,” he said. “Major— Private! Private Madej, Shane—Shane.”

Shane.

 

* * *

 

The Major-Private looked at her weird.

He had lived through this with her at least ten times already. He knew the way, the Mimics waiting for them, how the battle on the beach went, how things in London were every time they lost the battle, and now he knew the story of how her brother got lost and she found him after a long day of desperation.

Out there in the infinity loop was a Sara who had told Shane nothing. Another one who told him everything. One that invented a middle name that had made him laugh as they drove through Europe to find the Omega.

If they succeeded, guided by the visions the Omega sent to Shane through their connection thanks to the blood, they could destroy the Omega and win this war once and for all.

“Do you remember how it was?” Shane asked as they walked through camps filled with dead crops. “Before the war. Wait—how old are you?”

“None of your business,” she said instead of twenty-eight.

There was no offense in numbers, but intimacy was not something they should be wanting from one another. Sara knew it was a bit unfair for her, since Madej had known so many versions of her and if their mission went caput once more, tomorrow he’ll meet yet another Sara that may as well give him that middle name and that age.

“I’m thirty-two,” he said instead, she sighed and shook her head. “I remember it was kind of boring but things were always moving forward. It’s strange to have them move back now.”

In their search, an old farm served as a shelter where she found a helicopter, their safest and fastest way to Germany where the Omega had shown Madej her nest. He objected, because of course he would, and didn’t help to find the damn keys.

“Listen,” Madej said behind her, as she registered every centimeter of the safehouse. “Why don’t we rest some and then keep searching for those keys?”

“We’re wasting time!” She reminded him. “Every time you live more than one day, the loop becomes heavier. It causes you brain damage. What part of that are you not understanding?” She asked, looking at him to find his worried expression. “Fuck…”

There was a pain in her right shoulder, and if he noticed, it was over. Madej wouldn’t want to advance without her, would probably insist on seeing the wound, treating it. A bad movement made her reveal it with a hiss, her tools had fallen to her side and she had moved too fast, arm forced to move and initiate the pain all over again.

“Sara,” he called but she didn’t look, she kept moving to search until his hand landed gently on her other shoulder, slowly moving her to face him. “Let me see.”

“No. It’s nothing. We’re just going to waste time.”

“It can’t be nothing; you can’t move your damn arm.” He said, frowning. “You’re of no use to me with a fucked shoulder. Let me see, Sergeant.”

The usage of her title kinda convinced her. It was hard to say no when Madej kept proving to be an actual soldier even if made into one by necessity and the loop. Sara sighed, sitting up where he indicated and removing her jacket.

Madej didn’t react to the depth of her wound, nor did he look frustrated with the dismissal of her own wellbeing. She could tell he understood, even if he still had ended up caring for her. It reminded her of worse decisions she’d had to make all by herself, knowing she may have to see all her friends die over and over until she found the way to make it worth.

In the end, she hadn’t saved anybody. Just her and a few more who were now discharged at home, traumatized by the war, and the others, very little of them, who were still following her, now dying on that beach, thinking she had abandoned them or passed while defending Earth.

In reality, there was no glory in what they did. They had been lied to by people like Madej, who sold the war and being in the army as the ultimate fulfillment for the worried patriot, someone who had never touched camp or trained beyond a few days on boot camp.

“You can’t move that,” Madej brought her back to reality.

He was different now.

“Okay, here’s the deal...” He got down, squatting in front of her, Sara bit her bottom lip trying not to distract herself with how easy on the eye he was. “I’m going to try to find something to help you with that and while you rest, I’ll keep searching for the keys.”

“You have to go.”

“Yeah, I know.” He said, and the sincerity in his eyes made her swallow. “But the best chance is on that bird and I don’t know how to fly.”

“Man…” Sara sighed, massaging her forehead with one hand. “Okay.” She gave up. “But don’t waste more time, we need this to get going now.”

“Right.”

As he stood, Sara watched him go.

He was stronger now but his body was still the same body of a man who didn’t work out but kept the line. He was faster, could do so much with his hands and aim, but from now on, he wouldn’t look the part unless he kept training once the loop was over.

If it ever finished when killing the Omega.

Doctor Marchbank hadn’t said anything of it, he wasn’t sure, and Shane hadn’t asked. He probably knew this by now. Sara wondered how he must feel about it.

 

* * *

 

“The Omega is not in Germany,” Madej said into the room, making Marchbank and her look at each other. “It was an ambush, two Alphas were waiting for me when I realized.”

“Why they didn’t kill you?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” The man admitted, looking everywhere but at her. He had been doing that since they met in her training chamber. “TJ, is it possible that they would want me alive?”

“For the blood, maybe.” He said, thinking about it. “Maybe there’s something we are not looking into. Like the implications of another species having their blood and abilities.”

“So their science guys may want me?” Madej asked.

“Maybe.”

“Cool.”

In this loop, she could tell something was different.

How many times has Shane explained this to them already? How many times had he died and seen her die by now? He kept his distance, she felt like he knew him. Had he been carrying this for longer than her now?

“How many times have you looped?” She asked as they drove to London, a new plan and new possibilities in mind.

Madej’s eyebrows rose up towards his hair, there was no smile or laugh, even when he looked like the laughy type.

“I have no idea.”

 

* * *

 

Sara couldn’t remember him, but she was sure she knew him.

In theory, she knew who Shane Madej was to them, to the war, to the high positions in the game. But they have never spoken a word and she couldn’t understand why seeing him standing with the Y squad had called her attention.

Later, as they were being massacred in the beach, she saw him fight. The precision of his movements reminded her of Verdun and the loop.

So Sara knew the guy, he had just decided to not meet her this time.

Watching him fight, his back to her, warmth hit her back and the world went black.

 

* * *

 

As a child, Sara wondered if there were truly alone in the universe. She and her brothers would go outside and use their dad’s telescope to watch the stars, name them, make stories of their own and fall asleep in the grass while her parents laughed at their backs.

When the answer came, it was in the form of a meteorite and creatures killing everyone they saw, destroying entire towns in hours and advancing at a great rate.

She had volunteered, had wanted to help but—

“So your papers are fake,” Madej said at her side as she drove them out France. “Who would believe that our poster girl is actually a little liar.”

“At least I lied to get in,” she reminded him, there was no malice in his voice but it still had made her blush to admit it. “I was just… following someone.”

Before the war, Sara hadn’t been a nurse. It was a lie she had told to follow Ella into the field.

She had been an aspiring artist, “content creator” they called them at the time, and Ella had been the nurse.

They had grown up in different parts of the city, had met by chance, and she had fallen in love faster than she could put together a gun now. So when Ella had enlisted, Sara had shown up with fake papers that allowed her into the field as a nurse herself.

Ella had taught her everything even if angry, had protected her and taught her as much as she could until an Alpha attacked the camp, and Sara had killed it by mere luck.

“I think that was my worst death,” she admitted out loud, so many loops after. “Its blood melted my face and chest, but then I woke up the day before. Alive, not a scratch, being told we were getting new people at lunch. Just like before.”

Madej had only nodded. His silence seemed unusual but she wasn’t sure, she hadn’t met him before while he had met her so many times in the loop. He woke up and came to find her every time. Had tried all the things he could think of and had finally decided to keep going.

“When we find this thing…” Madej started, “Do you really think we will be able to tell where the Omega is?”

“If your blood is anything like theirs…” She answered. “Yes.”

“I sure fucking hope so.”

He sounded so tired at that moment, but so sure of himself, as he carried his soul into the General’s office and exposed the problem in hand.

Sara was pointing a gun at her superior, committing high treason on the General’s end but would do it as many times as necessary until he believed and let them have Marchbank’s Mimic GPS back, help them win this war.

When the man had given it to them, and they had walked away faster than they had entered, they were back in trouble.

“This is the first time this happens,” Shane said. “He never listens, so I’m not sure what will happen now.”

“We have to get out of here.”

“Agreed.”

The second he said that, there were guns were pointed at them in the entrance and he sighed, looking at her with his most tired expression. She apologized while taking out her gun, pointing it to his head.

“Madej...”

“Shane. Just call me Shane for once.”

Sara pulled on the trigger and saw him collapse. “Sorry, Shane.”

 

* * *

 

It turned out, they couldn’t save the world even knowing how the day was going to go for the many tries Shane had gotten.

He told Sara that he knew that while they were being ambushed in France, England was about to get under attack and succumb. He knew many other cities were lost that day, opening the path to the rest of the world and the extinction of the human race.

Sometimes, as Shane moved to other camps to fight other battles and see if he could change things over there, he would end up thinking maybe we deserved it, for the soldiers destroyed as much as they claimed to save, played with their lives, touched people they should not.

Other times, he would listen to his squad’s stories. The good ones that had people waiting back home, those who had lost so much they fought to forget and to honor, a boy who had taken his boyfriend’s name and rank to send the payment money to his mother in law who was alone and had lost her only child.

Sara wondered how long it had been for him since he started resetting. For the way he spoke, how tired he was, how disenchanted with life he was, it looked like years.

Maybe that was why she had agreed to run away with him.

“You can kill me at dawn,” he had said. “I just need a break. I need to regroup my ideas. See what the fuck I can do now.”

She watched him get comfortable in the back of an abandoned pick-up truck, trying to get some sleep at night even though even the crickets noises irritated him by now. Sara laid down at his side and looked up, the stars looking further away than ever.

“Did you believe in aliens before this?” Sara asked.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “Not like this, though. Once I was told I believed in the most boring version of aliens.”

“What’s that?”

“Microorganisms and bacteria,” he said, a smile in his voice for the first time all day. She looked at him. “That’s long gone, though.”

“Did you lose someone?”

When he didn’t answer, Sara decided not to insist. She wondered if she had ever mentioned Ella, her squad—Eugene and Quinta, and Ned, and Ashly, and—

“I was married once,” he suddenly said, making her sit down and look down at him. He looked back, smiling at her expression. “But he died before the invasion,” he sighed, closing his eyes. “Thank God.”

_ We all have secrets _ , she could hear herself saying in another life. Maybe some past loop.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“I’m sorry for yours,” he answered, eyes still closed. So she had talked about Ella. “Sometimes I wish he was still around. If I could be stuck on an eternal loop where I get to wake up at his side, I wouldn’t mind it at all.”

Sara couldn’t help but smile. “Tell me about it.” Then laid down at his side again. “What was his name?”

His eyes opened, old pain in them. “Ryan.” He licked his lips, then looked at her with a tiny smile. “My gorgeous angel.”

It reminded her of the name he gave her, and she wondered if he had done it to honor him, his husband who had died and who she will never meet or even know more about, for Shane was dying at dawn, resetting the day to give them another chance at a happy life.

Or something of the likes.

Right now, all she could do was kiss him, realizing how much it felt like familiar waters. How many Saras had kissed him already? Had any of them felt like she did, like she was kissing the last man she would ever be with, and couldn’t be happier it was the Major who had made her a tower of hope for so many people?

“Have we done this before?” She asked when they were naked and the crickets didn’t bother him anymore.

“No.” He admitted, his eyes were sincere and the way his hands felt on her waist was new. “I’m not complaining, though.”

Sara laughed. She hadn’t in such a long time, it felt like another world.

 

* * *

 

They won when he hit year three in the loop, Shane had confessed to her afterward.

At first, he had gone to see her in the new world, where he was still a Major and her superior, his uniform winning him another kind of greeting from her.

“Yes? What do you want?”

He had laughed, his smile so wide it had made her frown. Shane’s first instinct was to invite her for breakfast, not losing a single second to make it clear he knew she hadn’t eaten anything since she woke up at four in the morning.

Still frowning, she followed her superior thinking this was about some commercial or campaign he had in mind. He was still their merch man, that who got them into everyone’s houses on TV and YouTube.

Sara never saw it coming, him saying he had the loop and met her almost every day for three years until they were able to destroy the Omega.

“I haven’t talked to TJ,” he said, “but I’ll make sure to find an excuse to give him back his credibility.”

“I don’t know if he would want that.”

Shane smiled, Sara wondered in what loop he had started to be  _ Shane _ but calling him any other thing, Madej or Major, didn’t sound correct. Just his name.

“Thanks for agreeing to have breakfast with me.”

To this day, she has never known how to answer to his gratitude.

 

* * *

 

When Shane renounced his rank to follow her across Europe, her stomach dropped and she felt as if she was to blame for his lost life since there was not going to be anything in here but rebuilding, fighting in the places that were devastated and now claimed their home back from others who had taken advantage and settled down there.

But he had gained even more rank after the war with the Mimics as she did, too. No one would ever know what he had done for humanity, how good of a soldier he actually was, nor will they ever understand why he had renounced to a life already paid for and such position of power only to re-enlist and then ask to be located with her.

Sara accepted, not understanding herself. She had taken him, just a private again, into her squad that was supposed to be an elite unit and let him stay by her side.

“This is not some sort of love story. You know that?” Sara asked him one morning as he walked behind her with his hands on his back. “We are working.”

“I know.”

But the rumors were in.

Sometimes, when there’s nothing in a base but sweat and cards, people started to talk.

Why would a man like Shane A. Madej renounce power and money, peace and quiet, just so he can follow the Angel of Verdun around? They said he had seen her in person during one of the many celebratory events they were invited to and had fallen in love with her madly at first sight.

Sara didn’t doubt the madly part. She could feel it every day behind her in the way he looked at her and smiled when something as simple as sneezing he would find endearing. She felt it when he obeyed her orders without hesitation and took charge of every little task she didn’t want to do.

His real rank was superior to hers, he was older –a sensitive theme for him from time to time even when seven years was nothing in her opinion—, and yet he followed her around like a loyal dog.

“Stop.” She said while turning to look at him, towering over her in such way, she had to frown while thinking how to proceed with her plan. “Why are you here?”

“What?” He answered, a frown of his own appearing on his handsome face. “What do you mean, ma’am?”

“Okay, forget formalities.” She cleared her throat. “Don’t be stupid, you know what I’m talking about—Shane, why are you behind me?”

The man blinked a couple of times like he really didn’t understand her questions. His shoulders relaxed, his hands were still behind his back and a soft smile adorned his face.

“You don’t know me,” He reminded her, “but I know you understand how I feel after losing it.” The loop, he was talking about the loop. “You understand what is like to wake up sweating after all the memories pile up in dreams.”

“So you sacrificed your entire life just so you can be near someone who understands that one experience?” She extended her arms, showing the base they were staying at in Austria. “You could have just called me from your home, you know?”

Shane moved his head to one side, looking like a kicked puppy. “I can ask for relocation if you want.”

“No!” Sara said, hands going up like wanting to stop him. “That’s not what I mean! Stop doing everything I say!”

She covered her face with both hands, trying to think better and put her ideas together, explain her frustration the best she could. But all she could do was to feel the way her heart was beating fast, her body was shivering, her legs feeling like jelly while her hands were sweaty. All the signs were there and yet—

“Do you want to be alone?” Shane asked and she slowly looked up at him.

“No.” She said, sighing before cutting the short distance between them and getting on her tiptoes. “Goddammit! Lean down now, Private. You’re too tall.”

For the first time, he hesitated for a few seconds, then slowly bend down until Sara could reach his face and cradle it with both hands. His eyes were closed before hers and she kissed him for the first time ever. 

Shane tasted of their early coffee and the chips he had while reading her mail, answering it for her and signing reports from the other team members. He tasted of years of loneliness, a sensitiveness she had seen but never really touched, of many secrets many Saras had found out but she hadn’t.

The loop was there in his lips, his soft kiss, his warm breath. 

It was in the way he didn’t touch her but kissed back with all he is until her hands were on the neck of his uniform, getting Shane closer, making him finally grab her with one hand on the small of her back and the other on her neck.

They had time now. She could know him now.

 

* * *

 

“My blood is still infected.” 

“What? What does that mean?”

“We are not sure… But Teej is afraid of, you know, making a  _ test _ . Because there’s not an Omega to reset the time, I may die for sure if we try something.”

“But your blood is still infected.”

“Yeah.”

 

* * *

 

Shane touched her as if she was sacred, divine.

He always let her take charge and initiate things, like if he was scared of doing something she wouldn’t like, and in a way, she was thankful for that.

Sex hadn’t meant anything beyond pleasure and distraction for her ever since Ella and the loop, thinking it would magically be different with him had turned out to be just wishful thinking. 

But the man had a respect for her and her body she had forgotten existed in the hands of a real lover, and it made his gentleness and smiles her favorite part of being together. It made it become something else, an intimacy she hadn’t had in the longest time.

When he turned two years free from the loop, they moved together to an apartment they had chosen in London and made plans of one day going back to the States, retirement, and a more peaceful life.

He talked about Ryan and the plans they never got to fulfill because his time had come earlier than any of them thought possible in the face of a stroke. 

About how Shane was still Shane A. Madej-Bergara and his husband had died Ryan S. Bergara-Madej, buried with his ring that had the same engravement Shane’s had. 

He didn’t show her what, but he showed her where the ring was now: hanging with his dog tags, always with him.

So Sara talked about Ella.

Ella and the idea of living on a farm far away from everything with all the dogs they planned on rescuing. Ella and the children they wanted, probably two girls named Lydia and Laureen. Ella and the wedding dresses that Sara had designed for the two of them.

None of it had survived the war, but the morning she caught herself doodling again in her office while waiting for a call from a superior, she stopped everything and looked around, like she had been doing something wrong and bad.

Sara had swallowed, slowly looking at her doodles that looked like nothing and no-one she knew but were there after so many years. 

“I haven’t drawn in years,” she murmured, after telling Shane about it later that day in their apartment.

It had become night, Shane drying the dishes she had washed after dinner, looking more like a part of her every-day than ever.

“That’s a good thing, right? It’s something you used to love, maybe you can have it in your life again, now that we  _ have _ a life again I mean.”

She chuckled, not even sure why but Shane always managed to make her laugh. “I guess I can try. I need supplies, though.”

“Sure you do. Wanna go for some this weekend?”

After that, it became part of her routine, doodling and drawing in the afternoons. Doodles started to appear in the corners of her books, and on papers that she didn’t have to pass on to any superiors, and then one day, a name.

Hers with Shane’s, like a high-schooler again. 

Sara E. Madej-Rubin. 

Sara E. Rubin-Madej.

Sara E. Madej.

Back when she had been that girl, she had wanted to take Ella’s name. She would have become Sara E. Mielniczenko in a heartbeat. And now—

 

* * *

 

When she had the loop and died so many times, there was a point in which it became  _ normal _ . That had tired her, took away her sense of reality and humanity. It changed her.

She couldn’t tell how much it had changed Shane, she had always known him after the loop, after the war. Even when it had been her, the man the other Saras in the loop knew was different and never coming back.

This time, the blood of the Alpha was still in him. It affected new blood and became one within his own, his own normal. 

He didn’t have any changes beyond that, no mutations, mood swings, anything. Just a regular guy with incredible military training no one could explain, PTSD no one understood, silences no one knew about.

“Just… maybe be careful with… you know, bed.”

“What?” He had frowned at TJ’s words. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t get anyone pregnant.”

Goodbye Lydia and Laureen Madej.

 

* * *

 

In her nightmares, the Mimics came back and destroyed everything.

There was no loop to help them anymore, no Sara and Shane to win these wars with the knowledge of what will happen in the day and beyond, the ability to die and come back.

Sara always woke up screaming, and most of the times, alone.

By the time Shane made it to their room, she was already in tears. He used to ask what was it and she never answered, he stopped asking and just held her, assuring her that whatever she had seen in her dreams wasn’t real and they were okay.

He was there.

“I once died because a truck passed me over.”

“Oh my God!” 

There was something morbid about laughing about this, but Shane was an expert on making fun of his own death. He found so many dark things hilarious, Sara had gotten used to it in a way she never expected to. His way of calming her down was effective, and their bathroom was soon filled with both their laughter.

When she had dreams like today, he always took her for a bath. They would sit together in the warm water, his body around her smaller frame and they would talk for hours, even when the water had turned cold.

It worked every time.

“Once a snake bit me,” she said. “After having TJ shoot me, I found out it wasn’t poisonous.”

“Jesus—“ He giggled. “I choked on my own teeth during a combat once.”

“What?!” 

She laughed again, back against Shane’s chest, hands on her chest. Sara could feel the vibrations of his own laugh, deep in his voice that was so calming to her, fresh in the heath of the night, alive.

His arms rounded her for a few seconds as he kissed her cheek, then stood up. They were long since cleaned, their fingers wrinkled for the water that was now cold, and she looked up to admire his long legs, the rest of him as naked.

Before him, the last time she liked a man, he had been very different from Shane. Now, she couldn’t understand why she would like anyone but her boyfriend.

He got out of the bathtub, robe going around his body. When he turned to her, her robe in hand, she stood up and let Shane wrap her in the cloth but before she could get out, he carried her, making Sara laugh as they went back into their room.

In two days, Shane would be celebrating being free of the loop for three years, the same amount of time he was in it. He was a different man now, one she could live with, one she could take the name of.

Shane got them both to bed, still naked and damp. He wrapped her in his arms and their sheets, kissing her naked body as he assured her it was all real, they had won, they were okay. It was soft and gentle, it always made her think of words she couldn’t bring herself to say, how this was, without a doubt,  _ lovemaking _ .

He could never sleep well and for long, he was always alone at night sitting in their studio, listening to music, listening to silence. But he was alive, free of the loop, of the Mimics, and he had her.

One day, if they could heal together, maybe one day they would be completely okay.

 

* * *

 

“Would you marry me?” Shane asked her, on the night they were guests of honor at the opening of the Mimic War Museum in Budapest.

Sara had been taking off her makeup, still in her purple dress, when he had come out the bathroom with a shy expression, looking at her sweet and tenderly, like only he was able to.

“What?”

He chuckled, sounding nervous. “Well, I like living with you and I thought—“

“Okay,” she said, her voice sounding tiny. “Yeah, I would love to.”

There was a long moment in which they only looked at each other, half her makeup gone and barefoot, his fly and shirt wide open and also barefoot, before he wandered off into their room.

Sara stood there, looking at the door he had gone through, listening to him searching for something and walking back into the room, fast and with something behind his back.

“I’ll do this again the right way.” He said. “I… Okay.” He went down in one knee in front of her, Sara blinked a couple of times but waited. “I met you 1,106 times during the loop and then just for one day after it, and I thought—“

“Shane—“

“I thought you were a big bitch.”

“Oh my God!” She laughed.

“And you thought I was an—”

“Entitled idiot!”

“Yes,” He laughed, “an entitled idiot.” Shane sighed, showing what was behind him, a black velvet box he opened to show her the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. “I have known so many versions of you, and I’m so glad this is the one I get to know better… free, hard-working, passionate and inspiring.”

“Shane, please…”

“Nope, I’m cheesy and you’ll have to listen to the whole speech. I’ve been working on it for months.” He swallowed visibly in spite of his big smile, Sara’s cheeks felt warm. “I’m… I’m so in love with you. I am. Sara, would you marry me?”

She nodded right away, mostly because he had never said those words before. Sara had thought of them before, she had, but was never able to pronounce it for his ears and his smile. She felt his love every day, even before those feelings had grown on her. And yet, listening to it, it was, it was just different.

“Yes,” she finally said, unsure of what to do next. “Yes, I would love to.”

He chuckled again, just as nervous, quickly working the ring out of the box and into her finger. Sara watched as Shane put her new ring on her, the blue rock shining bright in the middle of the circle of little white ones over the silver base. 

Blue was their color, like the Mimic’s blood, like their uniform, their weapons, TJ’s lab. Their butterfly, and now the ring. 

Sara sighed, admiring the rock on her finger as Shane stood up, offering his hands when he was in front of her, towering over her as he always did.

“I meant that.” He murmured, like if anyone would hear them there. “I love you, Sara.”

A smile appeared in her face, she could feel the curve of it, the way her cheeks became harder and warmer. 

Yet, she couldn’t say it.

“I—”

“It’s fine,” he kissed her forehead. “You don’t have to say it, I under—”

“But I love you,” she finally said, and the words made her feel something in her stomach. Something good, something that had been lost. “I love you, Major.”

Shane chuckled, looking down at her with a beautiful smile. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

 

* * *

 

“What are we gonna do if it has the loop?”

“I wouldn't mind my kid not dying, to be honest.”

Shane sighed, looking more insecure than before and Sara bit her cheek inside her mouth, watching as he licked his lips and kept looking at nowhere in particular in front of him.

“Well, there’s not much I can say,” Shane said. “It’s your decision.” He looked down at her and she nodded. “I understand you want to keep it.”

“Yeah,” She answered, one hand on her belly. “Are you okay with that?”

He seemed to actually think about it, which made her feel relieved. She wouldn’t want him to not consider it, for good or for bad, doesn’t matter what. Shane swallowed and looked back at her, a tiny smile on his lips.

“I’m scared shitless but… as long as we don’t get a time-traveling baby, I’m fine.”

She hit his stomach as they both started to laugh.

 

* * *

 

Sara had been someone else before the war, she had been different when the loop happened and another woman after she lost it.

When she met Major Madej, many things changed for the war and for her.

He had been one man when the first meteorite fell in Europe, someone else when he got the loop, and a new man when he went to meet her for the last time as she trained alone in her private training chambers. 

That day, he had stood there with his uniform and medals shining in the sun, hair messy from the flight, his hat under his arm as he watched her approach him.

“Yes? What do you want?”

And all he had done was smile with relief, tears pooling in his clear eyes, cheeks getting pink. 

Because the loop had given him one last chance and in spite of all danger, space and time, Shane had found Sara.

*******

******

*****

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for reading! Maybe I'll see you on [my tumblr](http://yaboybergara.tumblr.com/)? Have a good day!


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